'Breaking Bad': Walter White laid to rest with mock funeral

By Breeanna Hare, CNN

Updated 1134 GMT (1934 HKT) October 22, 2013

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds.

Photos:Memorable moments from 'Breaking Bad'

Memorable moments from 'Breaking Bad' – "Breaking Bad" may be history, but stars Bryan Cranston, right, and Aaron Paul are still keeping the show in the spotlight. The two starred in a promotional video for the Emmys with Julia Louis-Dreyfus ("Veep") that included a clever reference to their meth-cooking characters -- as well as some digs at the awards. The AMC show is up for a vat-load of Emmys, including nominations for Cranston, Paul and best drama. Here are some indelible scenes from its five seasons (SPOILER ALERT: Read no further if you don't want plot points revealed).

Hide Caption

1 of 11

Photos:Memorable moments from 'Breaking Bad'

Memorable moments from 'Breaking Bad' – This scene from Season 1 offers one of the first glimpses into how smart and ruthless Walter White (Cranston) can be when cornered. Here, Walt leaves with a bag of cash after igniting an explosion at the lair of Tuco, a midlevel meth dealer.

Hide Caption

2 of 11

Photos:Memorable moments from 'Breaking Bad'

Memorable moments from 'Breaking Bad' – Jesse Pinkman (Paul), Walt's apprentice, does heroin with his neighbor girlfriend Jane in Season 2. Soon after, Walt discovers Jane choking on vomit in her sleep and does nothing to save her, a decision that made his character unredeemable in the eyes of some viewers.

Hide Caption

3 of 11

Photos:Memorable moments from 'Breaking Bad'

Memorable moments from 'Breaking Bad' – Walt's brother-in-law Hank (Dean Norris), a DEA agent, tracks down the RV that Walt and Jesse have been using as a meth lab, trapping Walt and Jesse, who are hiding inside. But Walt orchestrates a fake emergency phone call to lure Hank away and escape without being identified.

Hide Caption

4 of 11

Photos:Memorable moments from 'Breaking Bad'

Memorable moments from 'Breaking Bad' – Drug lord Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito, left), livid over an act of betrayal by Walt and Jesse, sends a brutal message in this soon-to-be bloody scene from Season 4.

Hide Caption

5 of 11

Photos:Memorable moments from 'Breaking Bad'

Memorable moments from 'Breaking Bad' – In this dramatic Season 4 showdown, Gus takes Jesse and loyal henchman Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) to Mexico to meet with the vicious leader of a drug cartel. One poisoned bottle of rare tequila later, the three are fleeing for their lives.

Hide Caption

6 of 11

Photos:Memorable moments from 'Breaking Bad'

Memorable moments from 'Breaking Bad' – Jesse, Walt and new accomplice Todd (Jesse Plemons) encounter an unfortunate surprise witness when they stage a daring train robbery in the New Mexico desert.

Hide Caption

7 of 11

Photos:Memorable moments from 'Breaking Bad'

Memorable moments from 'Breaking Bad' – As a seasoned fixer, the unflappable Mike is usually the one pointing a gun at someone. But Walt, growing increasingly volatile, turns the tables on him in this momentous scene from Season 5.

Hide Caption

8 of 11

Photos:Memorable moments from 'Breaking Bad'

Memorable moments from 'Breaking Bad' – Walt and wife Skyler (Anna Gunn), a reluctant accomplice in his tenuous drug empire, visit a storage unit where she reveals to him a massive stack of unlaundered cash. "I want my life back," she pleads. "How big does this pile have to be?"

Hide Caption

9 of 11

Photos:Memorable moments from 'Breaking Bad'

Memorable moments from 'Breaking Bad' – In the last episode before "Breaking Bad's" final run, Hank discovers some incriminating bathroom reading in Walt's house. What will he do with this startling information? The answer may drive the narrative for the show's final eight episodes.

Story highlights

Some have opposed the fake grave site and have signed an online petition

"Breaking Bad's" Walter White has been off the air since late September, but his legacy is still looming over Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the series was set and filmed.

Fans seeking one last goodbye to the TV character, who transformed from a milquetoast chemistry teacher into a treacherous meth kingpin over the course of five acclaimed seasons on AMC, gathered in Albuquerque on Saturday for a mock funeral. CNN affiliate KOAT said ahead of the service that the plan was to bury a "small vault filled with memorabilia" as fans said their goodbyes.

With a eulogy given by "Breaking Bad" set decorator Michael Flowers and a procession led by a hearse, the show's famous banged-up RV, and a few Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department deputies, the event was attended by roughly 200 people, the Albuquerque Journal reports.

The faux service, held at Albuquerque's Sunset Memorial Park, doubled as a fundraiser for Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless, as attendees paid to participate. According to the funeral's website, $20 bought entrance to the funeral "and a handful of earth to help bury Walter White."

JUST WATCHED

The evolution of Walter White

MUST WATCH

JUST WATCHED

'Breaking Bad' breaks television model

MUST WATCH

'Breaking Bad' breaks television model03:24

Yet for some who have laid actual family members to rest at Sunset Memorial Park, the fake grave site is, at the least, a nuisance.

"It's going to be difficult to look up and see something going on over there that really shouldn't," resident Manuel Arellano told KOAT. "This is too much. I bring my family here to visit their grandpa and my wife to visit her dad ... What's going to happen come Christmas, come Thanksgiving on those hard days for me and my family? It's hard to come when we miss my father-in-law so much. It's going to be hard to see people over there decorating something for somebody that wasn't real."

More than 900 people who agree with that sentiment have signed an online petition asking Sunset Memorial Park to remove the grave site, which includes a headstone. Officials at the cemetery told the Albuquerque Journal that the mock burial was in the clear as long as the cemetery could remove the grave if it became a distraction for others.

"We are a cemetery first and foremost," Sunset Memorial Park general manger Vaughn Hendren told the paper. "Our allegiance lies with our families that have allowed us to bury their loved ones here."

The online petition asserts that "the 'officials' should not put the family members through such disrespect during the process of deciding whether or not too many people are visiting the makeshift grave."

For now, it seems the petitioners have won out. According to KOAT, the AMC character's fake grave has been moved, and the headstone is not being kept at the cemetery.

While fans may not always have a physical place to mourn the loss of White, who was played by Bryan Cranston, they can always hold on to the obituary. The Albuquerque Journal ran a notice about White's "death," as constructed by a "Breaking Bad" fan group, in its October 4 paper.